I'm trying to figure out what the genre of games is called in which the only (or primary) control is to hold a single down a button to move the vehicle/character up and when letting go of the button, you float or move down. You generally try to avoid obstacles by moving above or below them.

Examples of this genre would be The Helicopter Game, or Jetpack Joyride. There are no doubt many others that you may have run across over time as well. I just didn't know if there was a genre name for them. I've seen things like 'cave flyer' or 'dodging', didn't know if there was anything better or official to classify them.

I've heard "auto-runner" on some gaming podcasts, because your character constantly/automatically runs. It doesn't seem to be very widespread though--Googling it mainly turns up task scheduling programs.

Appreciate the answer, but I'm looking for something that encompasses the entire group of games, not just Jetpack Joyride. Only using it as an example because that's the one I played most recently.
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Doozer BlakeSep 2 '11 at 15:43

2

They get to decide on the marketing for their game, but I don't think they get to decide the name of an existing genre.
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KipFeb 4 '12 at 15:53